I don’t care what you believe in but culturally we are pressured to take this time off and be inundated with not-so-subliminal messages of coercion to buy and be peaceful and fucking enjoy the season—trees, snowmen, ornaments and bearded fat men. Go out on the streets filled with young Santas dressed in plaid, wearing tuques and drinking IPA and say, "Merry Christmas, little hipster Santa. Did you lose your reindeer, you drunk dummy?"

I don't feel bullied to buy this year because I don't really have anyone in my immediate life to buy for. It's fine. It's good. It's great. Alone is okay for Christmas.

Despite all of the xmas bullshit, from which I am way removed, I do like this time of year. I know I’m not digging my car out of snow but it is a reflective time and a time of transition. I hope you get everything you want and that people enjoy what you got them. I hope you eat well and that the season didn’t break you financially. I hope you don't hurt yourself or others and I hope you do something charitable and truly giving.

And also, break some shit if you have to. It helps sometimes.

I had a ridiculous plan to drive to Albuquerque and stay at the Los Poblanos Inn and just sit in the room and wander around my home town alone. I guess I wanted to use the fuel of the forced festive tone of the season to go down the dark nostalgia hole and retrieve something from my past and sit with it like a sad Ghost of Me Past. Oh, and I was also going to spend some time with my dad. Some part of me thought that would be relaxing. Things changed. Given that I was sick as dog, if a dog was sick with a flu/cold thing last week, I decided against a 12 hour drive into melancholy and my dad. I was too tired and too sick on all levels. I need to just hang out and re-groove my life. Shooting 13 hours a day for weeks on end zaps you.

I will say that I honestly think the second season of ‘Maron’ is looking great. I don’t just say that kind of thing lightly.

So, I’m just going to recoup. I’m going to fly out to Phoenix for a couple of days and re-introduce myself to my brother’s kids. I heard my niece started playing guitar and she’s got her mind on an electric and the only big gift I will buy this year with joy in my heart is my niece’s first electric guitar. I hope she wants to go axe shopping.

This week director, writer and former child actor Jason Woliner joins me on Monday. On Thursday a comic from the 70s, Billy Braver, joins me. I wanted to talk to Billy about what it was like to quit comedy because I had seen a little doc called "Saab Story" about him but the tone of interview became "dreams die hard but don’t really ever die."